Egypt - The fourth edition of IOM’s quarterly Arab Expatriate Exchange, published this week, focuses on Syria and Syrians abroad. The newsletter, published by IOM’s Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in Cairo, focuses on Arab expatriate groups around the world. In each issue, an organization, a project, and an expatriate are highlighted, contributing to the flow of information and ideas between IOM and other organizations working in the Arab world.  

This expanded edition focuses on two NGOs working inside Syria and abroad.  Jusoor focuses on education for Syrians displaced by the war, while Hand in Hand for Syria has programmes that include heath care and youth activities in some of the worst-affected places in Syria. It also tries to provide a broader view of the Syrian diaspora, beyond the high profile arrival of refugees in Europe, profiling four Syrian expatriates of varying backgrounds already living in Europe, the US, North Africa and the Middle East. Read on.

• Hanien al-Mohammed fled Raqqa in Syria for Cairo in 2012. She has been pursuing a Master’s degree in Architecture, while working to support her family still in Syria. “I don’t want to be seen only as a refugee or a migrant. I just want to be Hanien.”
• Dr. Mouhaned Hammami is from Aleppo, but has been living and working as a doctor in the United States for decades. “I am a firm believer that expats play a major role in the restructuring of health systems and public infrastructure of their home countries both in times of war and peace.”
• Weaam Youssef is from a suburb of Damascus and is currently studying at the University of York in the United Kingdom. “Despite the difficulties facing Syrians everywhere, they are able to prove their abilities and contribute to the development of host societies.”
• Samer Mansour left Syria at the end of 2010 in order to avoid being drafted into the army. He joined family members in Saudi Arabia, where he has been living and working for the past five years.
  “Everybody has a role in this life and ours will be to go back home and rebuild the country. We all need to go back and employ our skills, experience and specialties to meet the various needs after the war.”

IOM and its partners are responding to the Syrian crisis, carrying out emergency response, community building and resilience activities. IOM’s crisis response activites range from delivery of aid to some of the most hard-to-reach places in Syria to reception and psyco-social care for migrants arriving in Europe after risking their lives at sea.

Read the full newsletter here: http://www.iom.int/middle-east-and-north-africa.

Arab Expatriate Exchange Autumn 2015
http://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/country/docs/mena/Arab-Expatriate-Exchange-Autumn2015.pdf

Arab Expatriate Exchange Autumn 2015 (Arabic)
http://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/country/docs/mena/Arab-Expatriate-Exchange-Autumn2015-AR.pdf

To sign up to receive the quarterly newsletter, please email iommenanews@iom.int. For more information please contact Michael Newson at IOM MENA in Cairo, Email: mnewson@iom.int.